What American Parents Should Do Now Post 9/11

I will never forget September 11, 2001. I was a freshman in college and I was already away from campus to prepare for a family members funeral in another city. I was in my grandmother’s living room watching The Today Show. Back then the show aired live with the twin towers as the backdrop. As we watched we saw one plane crash into the building and I vividly remember us both staring at each other, shocked, and boom the second plane followed causing nothing but devastation. America was under attack and all of us were angry, hurt, concerned, and ready to fix the problem.

Now we’re here. America, the land of the free, home of the brave, ethnic mistreatment, racial turmoil, misogynistic values, and pure hate with pure intent to divide people. We’ve turned back and I’m sure God isn’t pleased. Our core values are being flipped and I blame the ill will of our country’s leader. After 9/11 people chose to work together to defend and believe in solidarity that this country was the best place to live in the world. Now 17 years later, other countries watch and laugh at our country’s leaders that chose to mistreat children and separate them because of their ethnicity. Racism is brewing as hot as the days of Jim Crow, but people want to place the blame of ill-treatment on most of the victims. What a great time for us to have cell phone videos and social media, or else those victims bodies may be dumped in creeks in the south just as they were on hot summer days when my grandfather was alive and young. Our President is leading hate and intentionally making those without Godly intentions cause strife. Families can’t eat at a Subway while traveling without the cashier accusing them of robbery. Mother’s can’t take their daughters swimming without being accused of jumping the swimming pool fence. I could go on and on, but I would rather give a solution.

Don’t allow anyone to say that we can’t do anything until the President is removed from his position. As parents, we can do so much. We can begin by telling our children and reminding them of how special they are to God and to us. We have to build their self-esteem so that it’s not more comfortable for them to break someone else’s. Narcissism and racism are a lot alike. There is so much danger when people with these characteristics are in a place of leadership and influence. We are raising the next generation of leaders and those characteristics have no place in America anymore. We have to teach our children that love and respect have no color, price tag, or gender. We all are important in the eyes of a very patient and loving God. America has always been a melting pot and nothing is going to change that. We need to allow our children to make friends with children that are different. We learn how to live in a very real world when we respect the differences of others at a much younger age. We need to teach forgiveness. We need to teach tolerance when it does not cause others physical harm. Even God tells us that we are forgiven but we should not continue with the same wrong choices in our lives. There is a lot of greatness in America, but we have to make a conscious effort to stick with that and not the hate and prejudices that are literally and figuratively trumping us from moving forward with equal opportunities and fair treatment for everyone.

We should never forget the heroes and victims of 9/11. We can honor them with love and respect by becoming a united group of people the same way that we were in rebuilding our country in 2001.